Human Truths
by Trufreak89
Summary: Caught in the middle of a bank robbery, Owen and Gwen are reminded that not all enemies are alien…and Rhys makes some discoveries of his own.


**Title: **Human Truths

**Summary: **Caught in the middle of a bank robbery, Owen and Gwen are reminded that not all enemies are aliens…and Rhys makes some discoveries of his own.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Torchwood or anything related to the show.

**Rating: **PG-13 –Violence and swearing.

**A/N: **Set after 'They keep killing Suzie'. Gwen/Rhys Gwen/Owen

"If you didn't work so late we could have been home by now!" Rhys sulked, as he and Gwen stood third in line at the bank. "It's closing in a minute." Gwen rolled her eyes, ignoring him to try and keep her cool. Fighting aliens and recovering their technology was hardly a nine till five sort of job.

"Probably shouldn't have insisted on that basketball rematch." A familiar voice whispered in her ear. She turned to find Owen standing behind her in the queue. Great.

Rhys remained oblivious to the man standing behind his girlfriend, and continued to mumble about hating queues. Gwen frowned at Owen's leering grin and took hold of Rhy's arm, cuddling in to him. "We'll be home soon luv."

She could literally feel the gold glare she was receiving from her colleague. She sighed as the previous customer being served left the bank, the dinging of the bell telling her they were gone without her needing to turn around. Only two to go.

The little bell clattered again as the door was opened. No one bothered to look around, only concentrating on their own place in the line, and so only the single cashier noticed something terribly wrong with the newest customers.

A gun shot sounding behind them made the queue spin around to find three armed men standing by the door. "Everyone down on the ground!" The one closest to them shouted with an air of authority while the other two rushed the counter. The cashier had already hit the panic button though and a thick sheet of bulletproof metal slammed down in front of the glass, protecting the terrified worker. "Well that's customer care for you." Owen snapped angrily. Gwen stifled in a laugh, catching Rhy's eye.

They all sat on the floor, huddled in a corner of the branch with one of the assailants guarding them while the other two worked on getting to the cash. They'd blocked the signal for the emergency button, so the authorities wouldn't be alerted, but the cashier and the money still stood behind bulletproof metal and a reinforced door.

Gwen and Rhy sat clinging to one another with one of the customers, an elderly woman, beside them and Owen and the other customer, a balding man who looked like a motorcycle gang somewhere was missing him. Owen was right behind Gwen, his knee prodding in to her back. Leaning forward as their warder looked away he whispered. "Beats being stuck in the crypt…then again it had its moments." He grunted as Gwen leant forward only to slam her back off his leg. It had hurt her more, but he got the message.

"Hey, you!" Both Owen and Gwen froze as the robber guarding them snapped at Gwen. "Sit still." Rhy however, spurred on by a cop movie marathon the previous night while Gwen had been working, didn't become intimidated.

"You want to watch who you're talking to mate!" He snarled. "My girlfriend's special ops!" The three robbers all turned their attention to the paling Gwen. For a few tense moments nobody moved or spoke, until Owen's hearty laughter rang out through the bank.

"Give us a break mate. She works down in that shoe shop on the high street!"

Rhy's glared at the stranger who was laughing at him while Gwen internally sighed. The men seemed happy that it was just a bluff and returned to the task at hand. Getting to their money.

"Who the hell are you?" Rhys hissed at the man behind him.

"You're girlfriend's bloody guardian angel apparently." Owen hissed his reply venomously. "They find out she's special ops, hell if they even thought she was connected to the police, they'd kill her." Rhys quietened like a shamed child and tightened his grip on his girlfriend. She shot Owen a look of gratitude. Rhys could be such an idiot sometimes.

She tensed a few minutes later as she felt Owen's fingers brush against her back. They were in the middle of a bank robbery with Gwen's partner right beside them and he was trying it on? It was only as she felt cold hard metal pressed against her bare flesh that she realised what he was actually doing. He'd slipped his gun in to the back of her pants and under her t-shirt, hiding it from view. "Got a spare." He mumbled quietly, so that even Rhys didn't hear him.

"Fuck!" One of the men cursed loudly as his third attempt to ram the door had failed. The man who seemed to be in charge clipped him around the ear and pointed outside. The subordinate understood and looked over to the five people sitting on the ground. "Special ops." He grinned as he stormed over to her and pulled her to her feet. "Got a job for ya." Rhys was about to object, but Owen was already on his feet, the man' gun in his face.

"Leave her alone." Coming from Rhys it would have sounded like begging, but from Owen's lips it came out as what it was. An order. The man laughed at him before knocking the butt of his gun in to the side of his head. Owen fell back on to the ground, knocking his head off knee.

"Don't worry lover boy. She'll come back safe." The man leered as he dragged Gwen to the door. Thrusting a pair of car keys in to her hand he shoved her out the door, leaving it open a crack to watch her through without alerting the outside world that something was wrong. "Get the toolkit out of the boot." He ordered; his gun trained on her.

Rhys glared at the man that was now sitting beside him. "That's my girlfriend mate-"

"Yeah, and she's my colleague, alright?" He grumbled in response, clutching his bleeding head. "Special ops." He added quietly. Rhy's eyes widened, as he understood what was going on… or what he thought was going on.

"So that's why you're looking out for Gwen." Owen nodded, a smirk trying to break on to his face as he thought of the response he wanted to give. Fortunately even he knew that during a bank robbery was not the time to tell a guy he was protecting his girlfriend because she was the best shag he'd had in ages.

Once Gwen was safely inside with the toolbox she was unceremoniously plonked back on the floor in between Owen and Rhys. In any other situation she would have laughed at the irony. "What's the plan?" Rhys whispered, his gaze passing through her, concentrating on Owen. "You and him can get us out of this right?" Gwen's bewilderment subsided as he realised her colleague had informed Rhys that they worked together.

"Yeah, we sit here and don't do anything stupid, I know it's hard for you Gwen but have a try, and we don't get killed." She elbowed him in the ribs, feeling only slightly guilty as she noticed the blood dripping on to his cheek from a cut on his forehead.

Two hours later they finally got in to the back office and flung the terrified cashier over to where the other's sat. Owen broke her fall and sat with her clinging to him in fear. Gwen tried not to be jealous. He was only comforting a frightened young woman… and she had Rhys.

They worked quickly, filling their sacks with as much money as they could out of the tills. They didn't even bother with the safe, fearing they'd already taken too long. They'd put five innocent bystanders and one young employee through hell, waiting at gunpoint to find out of they would live, for less than ten grand. And they weren't done.

"We need some insurance." As they looked at their hostages it was clear to Owen who they'd take. He, the biker and Rhys could overpower them, the old woman would slow them down and the sobbing banker was still near on hysterical. The best candidate was Gwen; young enough to not slow them down, but old enough to know better than to try any heroics. "We'll take miss popularity." The one who had hit Owen leered as he dragged her to her feet at gunpoint. Rhys remained motionless with fear.

"Coward." Owen hissed, loud enough for the whole room to hear.

"What you going to do then pretty boy?" The one gripping Gwen's arm sneered.

Carefully and gracefully Owen stood up, leaving the bank employee sobbing on Rhys. With his lip curled in to a vicious smirk he looked Gwen straight in the eye, preying she was ready. "Manoeuvre 3." The three men looked bewildered by his words but his Torchwood co-worker knew exactly what they meant. Elbowing her captor in the ribs she ducked down, rolling away from their leader's groping hands. She turned as she landed out of her roll on her knees, the gun Owen had hidden on her safely in her hands. Owen's own weapon was drawn and pointing at the one who had hit him.

Both associates froze as they heard a click from behind them. In the confusion they'd lost track of the third man. They'd suddenly been made all too aware of his presence. Standing behind Owen, his gun shoved against his temple. Gwen's eyes stung as she fought back tears, seeing him with a gun to his head brought back painful memories of the countryside. Her abdomen tingled with the ghostly pain from her previous gunshot wound. As she had done before, and would do again, she dropped her gun to the floor. She couldn't risk Owen's life on a suicide mission. He followed suit, sighing as his plan went up in smoke.

A cruel smile spread out over the lips of the one that had held Gwen. "Know what pretty boy? We don't really need insurance after all." A single shot fired from his revolver, tearing through Gwen's stomach and splattering blood over Owen's crisp white t-shirt. Rhys and the others screamed as Gwen's eyes widened and her knees buckled. She fell to the floor, clutching at the wound as her blood pooled around her.

For Owen time slowed down as his blood boiled. Using all of his stealth and timing that he'd obtained from Torchwood he dropped to his knees, grabbing his guns before any of the armed robbers could react. He fired a fatal shot in to the head of each of the men behind the one who had shot Gwen and then shot the last one in the hand. His gun dropped as his flesh tore open and blood began to seep from the wound, it wasn't serious, he'd live. Owen stood silently still for a few moments, as though he were the one who had been shot, and then he finally fired off three more rounds. The man screamed in pain as his knee was shot out, his groin and his other hand. He fell to the floor, writhing in agony, with the shots to his hands stopping him from stemming the blood. Throwing the gun down Owen left him to die slowly and painfully and rushed to Gwen's side. Rhys, who was fumbling about, trying to press his coat over her wound, was promptly shoved away.

Pulling his t-shirt off Owen tore it and wrapped it tightly over the wound, the thin material soaking up the blood, and cutting off the circulation to stem the blood flow. A sluggish smile reached Gwen's lips as he leant over to tie it securely. "Any excuse to get your kit off." Owen attempted to smile but only achieved a grimace as he took in her weak state.

"Grab my mobile!" He ordered to the shocked Welshmen as he stood watching his girlfriend fight for his life. He did as he was told and recovered the phone he'd seen Owen give the men when they'd all been told to empty their pockets.

As he called an ambulance Owen snatched it away from him and barked in to the phone. "Yeah, the bank on the corner. A woman's been shot. Call the police and send an ambulance; and hurry it up, Classification Harper, Torchwood." The police and the ambulance would arrive quicker than anyone within the bank had ever witnessed, followed by a range rover of Torchwood members.

"C'mon Gwen, hang in there babe." Owen pleaded, pushing down on her wound. Her skin was pale and cold to the touch, her eyes listless and glazed over. "Give a guy a break! I've seen you shot three bloody times now." He growled, angrier with himself than her. Rhys didn't seem to take the information well, he began to shout and stutter about the job not being safe and about their plans for starting a family. Owen ignored him as he clung to his dying colleague. "Look…if you hold on, just two minutes till the ambulance gets here I'll…I'll stop being an asshole! I'll stop being a sexist pig…just please-"

She grew limp and her breathing shallow as the door was kicked open and a team of armed officers stormed the place. The ambulance carried her off to the nearest hospital a few moments later, rapidly pursued by Jack and Owen in the Torchwood car, leaving Tosh and Ianto to deal with a hysterical Rhys.

Hours later in a dimly lit hospital room Owen sat by her side, refusing the doctor's orders for him to leave. He wasn't leaving her side until she was out of danger. She lay peacefully in the soft white linen, as pale as the sheets she lay in and equally as still.

Owen sat in an old plastic chair by her bedside, his leather jacket over his bare chest. "You look like shit." He was pulled from his thoughts by Gwen's hoarse whisper. She smiled faintly as she lay looking up at him.

"You don't look much better, sweetheart." He teased, hiding the relief he'd been flooded with upon seeing her awake.

"Still an arrogant bastard?" She joked, remembering his promise. He laughed as he sat on the edge of her bed and gently stroked her hair.

"You wouldn't have my any other way."

She closed her eyes, still exhausted from the day's events. "Mhmm…where's Rhys?" Owen's face fell as she mentioned her boyfriend. Taking his hand away he slipped away from the bed.

"I'll send him in." He forced the anger and jealous resentment to stay out of his voice as he answered.

Closing her door silently he walked up the corridor to the visitor's room where Rhys and the rest of Torchwood sat waiting for news. "She's awake." He muttered as he walked through the door. "She wants to see you." He tossed a look in Rhy's direction, avoiding his gaze. The Welshman stood his ground in front of him, blocking him from moving. Owen grunted as the man thrust him in to a bear hug.

"Thank you so much. If it wasn't for you she would of…well it doesn't really bare thinking about."

"Don't sweat it." Owen mumbled, pulling away from his secret lover's boyfriend. With a glance at an all too knowing Jack he made his leave and headed out of the hospital to get a taxi home; back to his sterile little apartment and his drinks cabinet.

As Rhys slipped quietly in to Gwen's room, a placid smile graced her lips. "You came back." She mumbled, half asleep. "I never said thanks…for saving my life three times." Rhys sat down, knowing she'd confused him for her colleague, but he didn't bother to correct her. "Even if you are… an arrogant… twat …love you." She was out again as soon as the words escaped her lips. Rhys was no genius, but finally even he understood what was going on. Why some guy she'd worked with for only a few months was willing to risk his life for her. Why he'd reacted so violently and mercilessly to the man who had shot her. It also explained the late nights at work and Gwen's erratic behaviour…why she was so eager to get to work in the mornings and so lacklustre about returning. He kissed her forehead, whispering that he loved her and slipped out of the room, leaving her to sleep.

Wandering up to the visitor's room he found Jack Harkness, Gwen's boss and asked him for a favour. Standing outside the hospital with his phone to his ear he waited for an answer. "Hey, it's Rhys, Gwen's… Look, she's asleep now, but she doesn't want me here. She hasn't wanted me for a long time. I think it'd be best if you stayed with her."

Owen arrived at the hospital bright an early in the morning, standing by his car he waited with his typical cheeky school boy grin as a porter pushed Gwen in a wheel chair over to him. "So, finally done enough laying about?" He taunted as he and the hospital porter helped her out of the chair and in to the front passenger seat.

"Well I wanted to stay for another fortnight-"

"Well that's the NHS for you." He interrupted, giving her a teasing grin. "Good job you're going private."

Smiling she pulled him in for a quick kiss before he started the car. "I'm expecting the best Doctor Harper."

"Oh don't worry Miss Cooper." She giggled as he went for another kiss. "I'm going to give you a bloody good seeing to."

End.


End file.
